Luckily, they were mounting some cannon the day after you were taken away.

We were ordered to go out and lend a hand, so it was not long before I learnt enough to know which road I ought to take.

I was always a good runner, your honour, and many a prize have I carried off, at fairs in the old country, before troubles began.

So it seemed to me that, if I could have anything of a start, I ought to be able to get off.
"There was nearly half a mile betwixt the town and the place where the narrow ground, at whose end it stood, widened out into the country.

If I could only hold my own, as far as that, I could take to the woods and lanes and save myself.
"A guard of soldiers, with muskets and bayonets, went out with us, and at the end of the second day I managed to slip off, and hide behind a pile of cannonballs.